


The Various Stages of Toni Stark and Steve Roger's UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension)

by orphan_account



Category: Iron Man - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers
Genre: F/M, Feels, Fem!Tony Stark - Freeform, Female Tony Stark, Lots of UST, PTSD, everybody needs a hug, gender bending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-06-03 14:56:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6615031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toni Stark is a girl and Steve Rogers isn't so innocent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please review and vote!

Toni Stark: billionaire, genius, playgirl, philanthropist. That’s her. The years of neglect and pain she’d endured in her past molded her into this. The hotshot living in New York with her own motherfucking tower. _Tower_ , guys. 

She doesn’t care what other people think of her. She’s Toni Stark. But when she sees the look of disdain and disapproval on Steve's face sometimes when she speaks, it hurts. 

She sees his disgruntled expression when she’s speaking to Dr.Banner about his work, and she immediately declares them to be Science Bros. 

“We’re gonna have a lot of fun together!” She hoops her arm through Banner’s and puts her head on his shoulder. He looks at her weirdly, his entire body startled and rigid under her touch. She smiles at him. 

When Toni interferes with Thor and Loki’s little brotherly chat, she knows that she’ll get hurt. For Christ’s sake, she’s fighting with a god. But what she didn’t anticipate was when she was thrown on a ground and a familiar yet infuriating figure appears in front of her, with that same sense of righteousness and sickening justice, even if all she can see is his backside (but she can’t ignore the view of that ass). 

“Yo, Capsicle, we’d appreciate it if you would GTFO.”

He turns around to face her.

“GTFO? I’m not familiar with that term.” He looks confused. 

“Right, right. With the being frozen for decades and stuff. It means get the fuck out.” She smiles sweetly at him, and she genuinely means it. Toni has learned long ago that she can fight her own battles, and she didn’t really need a dude in a leotard to come to her rescue. 

“Language, Stark,” He frowns at her choice of words, “And we can’t have you two fighting. You’re supposed to be on the same side.”

“Captain of America, I would like it as well if you would, as Lady of Iron put it, GTFO.” Thor piped up.

“It’s Captain America, and I won’t GTFO. You guys need to put aside your differences and work together.”

 _Captain America is annoying_ , Toni thinks to herself for the first time, and things only go downhill from there. He opposes to everything she says, and theres a lot of storming out and cussing on her part.

“What I don’t understand is how he’s got two of my best men working about him like flying monkeys.” Fury grunts angrily one day.

“Flying monkeys? I do not understand.” Thor speaks up.

“I do! I understood that reference.” He looks so damn proud of himself, and she wants to smack him. 

But she puts their petty differences aside. She still wants earth not to be destroyed. The last things she remembers is holding the nuke flying up, up, up…until blackness consumes her. Then, her eyes snap open, and she sees his face. 

Toni’s never seen Steve’s face this close before. She admires his delicate features, his eyes that are a perfect shade of blue, his mussed-up dirty blonde hair, and his lips. Mama mia, his lips. 

“Oh my God, please tell me nobody kissed me.” She jokes, because she does _not_ know where that line of thought came from. 

“We won.” His face breaks out in a smile, and hers does too. 

“You guys can stay at my tower if needed. I have plenty of space anyways.” Toni offers them, and nobody can pass it up. A warm bed and a hot shower is all they really want right now. 

Steve makes his way into his room and falls into a restless sleep for a while, but once he wakes, he can’t fall back asleep. It's 4 a.m, and tossing and turning in bed isn't exactly fun. He decides that he might as well get up, and goes upstairs to the kitchen from his suite for a cup of tea.

He expects himself to be alone since it was so early, so he doesn’t bother to put on a shirt, but he finds a slim figure in the kitchen busying herself, with a circle glowing on her chest. 

“Stark.” Steve acknowledges her with a nod.

Toni recognizes his gruff voice, and turned around to face him, blowing lightly on her steaming mug.

“Capsicle! Whatcha doin’ up so early?” She always turned to humor or obscene loudness at times of awkwardness, and right now she couldn’t help but notice his bare chest. She doesn’t bother to hide the fact that she’s checking him out, because damn those abs are perfect.

Steve notices the way that she’s looking at him, and he wishes he’d put a shirt on, before he notices what she’s dressed in. Toni Stark had never been one for modesty or conservativeness, so naturally her pajama top is incredibly low-cut and her shorts...can they even be called shorts? He has a perfect view of her cleavage and her bare legs are so distracting…

“You look like you’re photoshopped.” Toni blurts out before she can stop herself. 

“What?” Steve is startled by her sudden words, and almost blushes when he catches on to what she’s talking about.

“Uhm, what I meant to say is, you have really nice abs.” Good job, Toni. 

“Wait, no no no, that came out wrong too. I mean–” Toni tries to justify herself, but is cut short by the sound of his laughter. She’s rarely ever seen him genuinely laugh before, always up with that uptight and just plain annoying frontier.

“What’re you laughing at?”

“It’s just that you’re always so confident and sure of yourself, I never thought I’d ever see you flustered.” Steve says to her with a smile.

“I wasn’t flustered, it was a moment of panic,” Toni tried to explain, "And I'm not confident," She adds almost as an afterthought in a much quieter voice, "I don't have a right to be." He's obviously not meant to hear this, but Steve's super soldier hearing kicks in whether he likes it or not. 

“Why not? You’re rich, you’re a genius, and if you don’t mind me saying, you’re beautiful.” Steve was never a fan of the way Toni took care of certain things, but even he couldn’t deny the fact that she was good at what she did, and on top of that an attractive woman. Beautiful, even.

“Beautiful? Right.” She looked pained, and surprised that the Captain had said this to her out of all people. Weirdly, it meant the most to her coming from him. 

“You are.”

The tone of his voice, so soft and gentle and genuine, makes Toni want to cry. Sure, other men have told her that she’s beautiful before, but they’ve never meant it. And Steve, out of all people, did. 

Toni gives him a tight-lipped smile, “Thanks, right. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Her sudden vulnerability catches him off guard, and he doesn't quite know what to say. 

He resumes his tea-making silently while Toni settles down at the kitchen table and quietly sips from her mug there. She bites her lower lip to stop it from trembling.

Steve sits down next to her, keeping his eyes anywhere but her. After seeing Toni so uncomfortable before, he doesn't want to intensify that feeling, and hopes that his silent presence would offer a sense of comfort. 

And so they just sit like that for a while, and Toni’s just praying to dear Thor that there aren't any questions. 

Suddenly, Steve feels something on his torso. He looks down to see Toni’s hand pressed flatly against his abs, and on her face is a look of wonder.

“Sorry,” She says sheepishly, “I just wanted to make sure they were real.”

Steve rolls his eyes at her.

“How would you feel if I grabbed your breasts and said ‘Sorry, I just wanted to make sure they were real.’?” He counters, then realizes that it was a really bad example. 

“Like you were sexually assaulting me. Damn, are you made of marble or something?” Toni’s hand starts to move up his body, and it's getting a bit weird.

“I feel like you’re sexually assaulting me.”

“Geez, Rogers, I didn’t realize you were such a girl. I bet you’re still a virgin anyways.” Toni rolls her eyes as she moves her hand away from Steve and gets off the stool to go put her empty mug in the sink. 

“My virginity is none of your business,” Steve gets up as well and tries to keep his expression stoic, but can't help throwing in, “But for the record, I’m not.”

“Oh my God, what?,” Toni’s look of genuine surprise kind of offends him, to be honest, “The face of justice? Our very own Captain America has fucked someone? Shame on you, sir.” She puts her hand on her chest as if he’d somehow insulted her. 

The action causesSteve's line of vision to follow her hand to her chest area, and he was only human. She has a nice body.

_God, Steve, what are you thinking about? This is Toni Stark. Toni. Stark._

"Whatever, good night."

Toni leaves Steve standing there in the kitchen, thinking about Toni and her sensitivity to being called beautiful, Toni and her ample chest and toned body, Toni and her sass and arrogance that annoys the hell out of him on a daily basis. 

He shakes his head as if to clear it, and leaves the kitchen.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vote and review! Comments are appreciated!

The next morning, it’s abnormally quiet. Steve and Toni’s usual banter replaced with strange silence, and they’re not fighting over whose fault it was yesterday that caused things to get so out of control, or whatever things that they usually fought about, nobody was really listening anyways.

The ringing of a phone interrupts their mostly silent meal, and Toni tells Jarvis to play it on speakerphone. 

“This is Director Nick Fury, we have another mission.”

Everybody at the table looks at each other with disdain.

“Come on, give me a fucking break. I just saved the world yesterday.”

“Not the whole team has to go, just you and Rogers.”

“What? Why?” Toni is bewildered, and the rest of the group (except for Steve) breathes a sigh of relief. 

“We believe that you two are the most stable out of the group. Everybody else is fucking out of it. And it’s time for you two to stop this petty grudge anyways.”

“Uh, they can all hear you.” Toni smiles a little. 

“Hey, Fury. Out of it? Us?” Bruce speaks up, and Toni can hear the gulp from the other side of the line.

“Uhm, I’ll send you the details later. That’ll be all, bye.” The line goes dead.

“Psh, coward.” Toni rolled her eyes at the commander’s antics.

The day passed by in a blur, mostly consisting of everyone sitting around watching movies, and the next day was time for Toni and Steve’s mission.

They’d arrived at the mission’s location, and Toni was going over the details with Steve.

“Ok, Capsicle, we need to go undercover as a newly-engaged couple at a busy real-estate agency because apparently their manager is some wacko who sells people ammo in his free time.”

“Couple?”

“See, I knew you were a bad choice for this mission. How could you, the pure and innocent Captain America, ever be involved with a woman? Still can’t believe you’re not a virgin by the way,” Toni sighed, “They should’ve chosen Thor. Those eyes…”

Steve winced at the dreamy look in Toni’s eyes, and couldn’t help but feel a sense of jealousy when she implied that he was so inexperienced with women, and how she thought that Thor was better-looking than him (he probably was, but whatever). He should really teach her a lesson.

They filed into the elevator alongside with probably a hundred other people, and were quickly squished to the side. Steve stood a bit in front of Toni, and was being pressed against her by tons of people talking on phones in front of him.  
He turns around so that he’s facing her and he can feel every part of her body against his firmly. He sets his hands on her hips, because why the hell not?

“What’re you doing?” She leans forward a bit to hiss in his ear.

“We’re a newly-engaged couple, remember?” He grins at her a little.

So he wants to play this game? He has no idea who he’s dealing with.

Toni reaches up to thread her fingers through his hair. It’s soft and silky, just like how she thought it would feel like while she daydreamed about running her hands through his hair everyday. She leans forward and her breasts squish against his broad chest.

It’s actually not working exactly the way she wanted it to because she’s really turned on.

In response, Steve’s hands roam down and squeeze her ass.

“Oh my God I swear I’m going to kill you later–” Toni starts to whisper-yell at him, but is cut off when he kisses her neck a little. 

I’m enjoying this way too much.

The ding of the elevator and the robotic female voice informing them that they were on the right level interrupted them, and they pulled away, with messed-up hair and looking slightly out of breath.

“Hi, welcome to Sunrise Real Estate, I’m the manager of the agency, how may I help you?” A man walked up to them as soon as they stepped out of the elevator.

How convenient, here was the manager right in front of them.

“Oh, well, Steve here and I just got engaged, and we’re looking for a nice house in the suburbs, could you show us some in that area?” Toni giggled as she reached an arm to put around Steve’s neck and kissed him on the cheek.

He stared at the side of her face for a second or two, but she didn’t turn around or look at him. Toni? Giggle? It was kind of cute…but it didn’t mix well. No. He quickly recovered at plastered a smile on his face.

“Yeah, we want to get it out of the way before the honeymoon. We’re going to Australia.” He snaked a hand around her waist. 

The unsuspecting manager beamed at them and congratulated them on their engagement. 

After listening to the manager babble on and on about locations that they weren’t the least bit interested in, Toni spoke up.

“We’re very interested in a lot of these houses, but we also need some help selling our current one, and we don’t have a real estate agent right now. Would you mind taking a look at it for us?”

“Of course.”

Toni and Steve lead him to a remote area of town, and through a dark alley. Seriously, how naive was this guy? As they enter dead-end and dimly-lit street, the manager laughs nervously.

“Well, it’s certainly an interesting part of the city that you live in. Where exactly are–” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence, as Steve sticks a needle in the side of his neck.

“Ok, now we just have to give him to S.H.I.E.L.D.” Steve dusts off his hands, and they get in a car provided for them that was parked there already. They tie him up with ropes and gag him, and throw him the backseat of the car.

“We still have to talk about you grabbing my ass in that elevator, Rogers.” Toni said through gritted teeth as she gripped the steering wheel.

“Oh, please, you were so enjoying that.”   
“I was not!”

“I felt you pulling my hair, you know.”

There was no answer.

“I mean, it’s not like I mind having a beautiful lady doing that.” 

“…I’m not beautiful.” Toni said in a small voice.

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Because I’m not. So can you stop telling me that I am, please?”   
“But–”

“I’m not beautiful! Or even pretty! Or worth anything! Fury just wants me so that he can have weapons, and I can tell that you guys, The Avengers, don’t accept me. And the weapons that I worked so hard to develop, it turns out, are being used to terrorize people! I can’t do anything right.”

After a moment of silence, Steve spoke up.

“It baffles me that someone like you would think that. You see how you stopped manufacturing those weapons the second you learned what they were actually being used for? That’s self-sacrifice, and genuine kindness. I mean, sometimes you can be hurtfully and brutally honest and maybe a tad bit of an asshole, but it’s nice to have someone who isn’t all smiley and fake and phony in this world that I’ve just woken up in.”

He doesn’t know where all that came from, but he knows that he means it.

When Steve doesn’t get a reply and the car suddenly pulls to the side of the road, he finally looks over at Toni, and he’s not ready for what he sees. Tears are streaming down her face, the face of a broken and fragile girl, and it breaks his heart.

He wordlessly hands her some tissues, and puts his arms around her awkwardly, hoping that it’ll provide some comfort.Who’d have thought this day would come? Captain America holding Toni Stark, billionaire, genius, playgirl, philanthropist, in his arms.


	3. Chapter 3

They don’t speak for the rest of the trip. Toni fixed her mascara with a little mirror she carries in her purse, and Steve knows better than to bring whatever just happened up.

After they drop the perp off with Fury, they go back to Toni’s tower.

“Hey, Steve,” before they enter the building, Toni speaks up, and Steve is surprised because it’s the first time she uses his actual name, “Thank you for what you said in the car…I know that I seem like I don’t have a care in the world sometimes, and what you said was really nice. I’ve just…I’ve been through some things, and I’m tainted and broken and violated, and I’m not, as you said, a wonderful or beautiful person. Thank you for trying. Could you please not tell anybody about it? I’m not ready yet.”

By the end of it, her voice is barely above a whisper, and she looks so vulnerable.

“Of course I won’t. I meant what I said, though. But it’s not like I want to get romantically involved with you or anything like that, I just happen to think that you’re a very good person on principle. I mean, I’m not attracted to you in that way, and I’m sure you aren’t–” He stops when he sees her smiling at him.

“What?”

“You’re rambling.” She says.

At least she’s smiling. 

They don’t speak to each other much after that, Steve moves back to his own place, and it’s not like they were the best of friends before then. 

It’s not until they’re assigned cadets for training to be a part of the Avengers that they see each other again. Toni enters the gym with her student, a nice and pretty girl named Alex with gorgeous dirty blonde hair, much like Steve’s. 

His back is facing her, and she’s mesmerized with the way his back muscles ripple as he pulls of his sweat-stained shirt.

“Oh my God, he’s so hot.” Toni turns to find Alex staring at Steve as well.

“Capsicle! What’s up!!!” Toni pipes up and she waves her arms around wildly. He turns around at the familiar voice to find Toni and a pretty blonde girl, who is introduced as Alex.

Alex is really shy around him, he notices. Her face is red when he shakes her hand. Does she have a fever? Maybe he should pick up some medicine later. He expresses his concerns to Toni, but what he gets back is an eye roll and a “How did you even get laid?” Then her eyes fall to his chest and abdomen, and she shakes her head. 

“If it weren’t for your body…” She mutters.

After that, they train their students separately, and occasionally exchange a few words during breaks.

And on a rare day-off that Toni gets, he obviously has to ruin that.

“Stark, Rogers was injured pretty badly during a recent mission. Go check up on him. I don’t think he’s capable of taking care of himself.” Fury tells her over the pone. 

“But you could just have one of the trainees go.” She whined, but she was already getting up. What? She worries about people. 

“You know him better, and he trusts you. Now, no more questions. Go.” With that, he hung up.

She groans and rolls off her bed. Looks like she actually has to change out of her pajamas today…Toni knows where Steve lives from some reason, and she stops by the deli on her way there to pick up some chicken soup. She doesn’t bother to knock since apparently he’s sick.

When she doesn’t see him anywhere in the living room, dining room, kitchen, home office, or gym, she opts for the bedroom.

“Hey, Cappy, are you decent? I have direct orders to take care of you.” Toni covers her eyes playfully as she enters his room and holds up the soup.

“Right.” Steve managed to croak, then broke into a coughing fit.

“Man, you look like total shit.” He was sitting on the bed, shirtless, with scratches and bruises all over his upper body.

“That’s what I was going for. Thanks.”

“Why don’t you just go to the hospital?”  
“I just don’t like them. Ow. Talking hurts.” He winced a bit.

“Where do you keep your painkillers?”

He pointed to the second drawer, and Toni pulled some out and dumped a few pills in her hand. He held his hand out, expecting her to drop them in, but she popped them in her own mouth instead.

“If I’m gonna be taking care of anybody, I’ll need some painkillers so that I can forget that I, a superhero, is going to be babysitting someone.” She said before handing the bottle to Steve. 

“I’m not just anybody, I’m Captain America.”

“Yeah, and Captain America is taking painkillers at this very moment.” She snorted.

“Come on, can you walk to the kitchen? I’ll put the soup in a real bowl there, and it has better lighting so I can take care of your cuts.”

“Right…I’ll try.” He winced as he stood up agonizingly slowly, and put his foot forward at a snail-like speed. 

Toni couldn’t stand the look of pain on his face and she was a very impatient person, so she got up and put an arm around his hips, and he put one around her waist.

“Oh my God, Captain, I thought you were stronger than this.” Toni mumbled when Steve stumbled. Again. They finally make it to the kitchen, and he sits on the counter as Toni puts the soup in a bowl and starts cooking something.

“What’re you making?”

“Cheese and bacon omelet. Can’t have an empty stomach, can you?” 

“I didn’t know you could cook.”

“I can’t. You’ll just have to deal with whatever shit I give you.”   
He feels something warm inside him when Toni turns around with an apron and a sizzling pan in one hand and a spatula in another. She’s smiling such a real smile at him, and she sets the plate with the omelet in it between his legs. 

Steve wolfs down the food, wiping his mouth.

“That wasn’t as bad as I expected.”

“Gee, thanks.” 

“I should probably take care of those wounds.” Toni said, eyeing the multiple cuts that the Captain was sporting all over, and goes to get the first-aid kit when he winces again.

She dabs cotton balls with disinfectant, and he’s Captain America, for Christ’s sake, but Steve shies away from it when the tweezers get close to his skin.

“Geez, Rogers, don’t be such a pussy.” Toni rolled her eyes at him.

“I’m not a pussy.” And so Steve lets Toni rub the burning liquid over his wounds and put gauze over them, but shifts his position again when she makes a move to pour disinfectant on his largest and most ugly wound.

Toni tries to reach the wound again, but he keeps on moving. After a silent couple of minutes of them wriggling around, Toni speaks up.

“Are you seriously afraid of this stuff? I’ve seen you face down the Hulk but you’re scared of this little bottle of liquid that’s supposed to heal you?”

He just looked at her with this expression silently, and she moves closer to him, between his legs. She moves both her hands at once, hoping that somehow she’d get an advantage, but he was much stronger than her. Steve’s hands have a firm grip on both of her wrists, and as she takes in the look of disdain on his face, she can’t help but start laughing. 

“I’m sorry,” She says between giggles, “It’s just that…America’s greatest hero––Captain America, he’s afraid! Not of HYDRA, not of the great Iron Woman, not of the Hulk, but of. Of…of a bottle of alcohol! Oh my God, this is priceless!”

He can’t help but crack a smile while he watches Toni’s hysterics. They’re really close right now, and Toni doesn’t notice because she’s too busy laughing, but Steve does. His gaze inadvertently drifts down to her soft lips, and soon, she realizes it too. She follows his line of vision.

He pulls her a bit closer, and she tilts her head up.

“Captain.” She breathes his name.

But Toni’s elbow knocks something on the ground, and the moment is gone, just like that. They both jump up at the sound and jump apart, and Toni picks it up awkwardly. This time when she goes to clean the wound, she keeps a respectful distance, and the Captain doesn’t move an inch, and though he tenses up when the cotton makes contact with his skin, he doesn’t move. 

Toni walks on eggshells around him after that, until Steve can’t take it anymore.

“Uhm, Toni,” He rarely ever used her first name, and she couldn’t ignore how well it rolled off his tongue, “I’m sorry if what happened earlier was really awkward…it was just a moment of impulse, can we please put it behind us? I miss the annoying and loud Stark.” He smiled weakly at the end.

“Yeah, of course…I’m sorry too. Psh, that was so nothing. We’d never be physically attracted to each other, right?,” Toni didn’t wait for his answer, “See? I’m over it already. It’s so far I can’t even see it. Let’s watch a movie.” She doesn’t waste a second as she moves to the couch, hoping that he has something watchable in his cabinets.

“Right.” It’s all Steve says in reply.

“Ugh, Rogers, seriously? You only have boring documentaries? How’re you such a buzzkill everywhere?” Toni’s nose wrinkled as she fingered through his DVDs.

“What do you have in mind, then?”

Minutes later, they were on their way out to the department store. Steve had complained that “It hurts when I walk a lot.” and Toni shot him down with a simple “Real men don’t whine, Cappy-tan.” And he’d shut his mouth then.

It was only until he really needed to rest that they stopped at a cafe to have a cup of coffee. They got a lot of stares, being two very attractive individuals, and Toni couldn’t stop the smug grin when she heard the two girls in the next table whispering,

“Oh my God, that guy is so hot.” True.

“Yeah, but he’s with his girlfriend.” (Toni wasn’t looking smug about this part, although it got her wondering what it’d be like to be Steve’s girlfriend?)

“She’s so pretty.” Yeah, this was the part that had her smiling.

“I know…I guess guys like that only gets together with girls like that.”

Steve had heard that conversation too, and looked slightly uncomfortable.

“Don’t look so unsatisfied, Captain,” Toni rolled her eyes at him, “They just deemed your hotness equivalent to mine, and you know how hot I am. You should be celebrating right now.” She said with a flip of her hair.

“Modest as ever, Stark.” 

She beamed at him while sipping her hazelnut latte, and he laughs when she puts down the cardboard cup. The foam formed an oval on her upper-lip and Toni Stark with a milk mustache? Priceless. 

“What?” She asks him incredulously, but he doesn’t say anything in return. He leans forward and her pupils dilate. His calloused thumb touches the soft skin above her lips, and he carefully wipes off the foam from her face, then sticks his finger in his own mouth.

“All better. It seems that you’re not hot enough to rock a milk mustache.” But in truth, she’d looked adorable before. 

Toni is still unmoving, the feeling of his finger so close to her lips lingers on her face and the soft smile that he sends her is making her insides flutter. 

They spend the rest of the day watching movies that Toni picked out that weren’t totally boring, and night came before they knew it.

She gathers up her things and gets ready to go.

“Thanks for taking care of me today.”

“It’s not problem, Cappy.” Toni replies with a huge smile.

“I mean it. I appreciate it.” And the look that he’s giving her is so intense and she can’t take it because she really wants to jump his bones for some reason, but he was Captain America. And she was Iron Woman. Things didn’t work like that.

“Like I said, I was kinda sorta not really glad to.” Her smile indicates that she’s joking. Emotions weren’t really her scene, and she quickly mutters a quick “Bye” and is already out the door. 

Once again, she leaves Steve in the kitchen, standing wordlessly.


	4. Chapter 4

Nobody knew when it really started, but every month, each Avenger would always find time out of their busy schedules (not that Toni actually had one) to gather for a day.

Sometimes they watched movies, sometimes they just talked, sometimes they went to play paintball or laser tag. Today was this day, a few days after Toni took care of Steve. They were in the kitchen, Clint and Natasha chattering about whatever it was that they did, the Hulk buried nose-deep in a book, and Thor was curiously looking at the refrigerator, marveling at “the cold box that has food in it” and “how magical it was”.

Unfortunately for Thor, he had no idea how to use the fridge doors, and with his godly might, the door came right off of its hinges.

“Honey, that fridge was actually expensive,” Toni sighed and held her hand out, “Please pay me back the full amount.”

“Pay you? I do not possess any earthly cash. If you’d like, I would be willing to gift you the valuable blood of monsters back in Asgard.”

“Yeah…sorry. I don’t have any interest in monster blood. You still have to pay me back in some way…”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Hmm…go the rest of the day without your shirt, will you?” Toni smiled wickedly, looking forward to seeing those abs.

“That is a valid request, although I have trouble understanding why.” Thor looked confused but pulled off his shirt anyways.

Toni leaned back on her elbows onto the kitchen counter, admiring the view, “All better.” She smiled to herself. 

“Stark.” She turned to see the Captain casting her a disapproving look, but she just shrugged at him.

“What? I’m only human.”

He sighed and shook his head at her, but said nothing. 

Later, when Toni is temporarily not drooling over Thor’s amazing body, she’s trying to get to the sink and Steve is in the same path, heading the opposite direction. The two nearly collide but stop themselves just in time.

“Oh, sorry.” The Captain moves to the right, trying to make space for her, but she moves in the same direction, and they’re still facing each other directly. It happens again when he makes a move to make space for her, and to say that it was awkward would an understatement.

Toni looks into his blue eyes, “You don’t move, I’ll step to the right.” And they finally manage to pass each other. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Natasha and Clint.

“Why don’t you guys just fuck already? The sexual tension is making everybody else in the room uncomfortable anyways.” Clint, always one to be blunt, suggested.

“What the hell?”

“Shut the fuck up.” 

The Captain and Toni, in that order, whirl around and say to him. It was the first time they’d ever heard Steve curse.

“He’s right, you know.” Bruce spoke up without taking eyes off his book.

“You too, Bruce?” Toni groaned.

“I thought you were more sensible than this, Banner.” Steve looked at the doctor with that look like he’d let him down somehow. 

“What do you mean by sexual tension?” Toni turned to Clint with her hands on her hips. 

“Oh please, you can’t have not noticed,” Natasha answered for him, rolling her eyes, “You’re eyeing Steve like he’s a dessert plate and he keeps staring at your ass.”

“I do not!” Steve immediately jumped to his own defense. He did not keep staring at her ass (ok, so maybe sometimes his eyes lingered a few seconds too long on her backside, but that wasn’t his fault; it was right there).

“Psh, I don’t even like desserts that much. Hard liquor’s my thing.” Toni waved dismissively. 

“Ok, then you’re eyeing him like a 50 year-old bottle of scotch.”   
“That’s so not true. And shut up.” 

Everybody else in the room did a mental eye-roll at their oblivion, but shut their mouths nonetheless.

…

A few days later, Toni gets a phone call from Natasha calling her to her room, saying that it was a “girl emergency”. She should’ve gotten suspicious then, honestly. Natasha? Girly problems?

And when Steve gets a phone call from Clint asking him to go to Natasha’s room, he doesn’t know why he goes. That’s about as suspicious as something can get. 

The gang, apart from Steve and Toni, had met up. They’d agreed to lure them into a room together, seal the door with Loki’s magic so that even they couldn’t blast it open, and put a microphone in the room so that they could hear everything. A camera was too hard to hide.

“What’re you doing here?” Toni and Steve say simultaneously as the Captain enters the room, just to find the one person he didn’t really want to see sitting on the bed.

“Nat called me here because of boy trouble. I should’ve known…she doesn’t have problems with guys.”

“And Clint made me come here for…something.”

After waiting in silence for 10 minutes, Toni was bored out of her mind.

“Well, if they aren’t coming, I’m just gonna leave.” She turned the handle of the door, but it wouldn’t budge, and she noticed some green stuff floating in the air around the doorframe. 

“What the fuck?” Steve perked up at her cursing, and found that he also couldn’t open the door, despite the kicking and punching.

“This must be Loki’s magic.” He reasoned.

“Those fucktards, they trapped us in here!”

“Why?”

“Probably for our ‘sexual tension’.” Toni held up her fingers to make air quotes and rolled her eyes. 

“Jarvis, please unlock this door.” Toni said to her AI.

“Sorry, Master Stark, I cannot override Loki’s magic.”

“Fuck.” They couldn’t really do anything. 

While absentmindedly fiddling around with a stuffed animal, Steve made a discovery.

“TONI,” He mouths to her silently, “There’s a microphone. They can hear everything we’re saying.”

At first, she looks kind of mad. But then a smirk dominates her features, and Steve has a bad feeling about whatever it was that would happen next.

She snatches a piece of paper and pencil and wrote down: ‘Don’t you wanna have a little fun with this?’

He looks at her with confusion written all over his face, and she has a wicked grin.

“Ohh.” An erotic noise emits from her mouth, and the Captain’s confusion is over, and he blushes. He looks at her incredulously.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” He mouths to her vigorously.

“Oh, Captain, don’t stop!” She moans, and he can’t help but feel a bit turned on. Damn it.

“Mmm, that feels so good,” She groaned, “Oh, harder. Oh my God!” He can’t help but notice that she’s really good at this. Because right now Toni’s just standing there, looking him straight in the eye, and he hasn’t laid a finger on her and she’s making these sounds. 

He continues to listen to her sounds and she gets closer to him at each moan, until they’re inches apart.

“Toni.” He groaned, deciding to play along. It’s not like he could stop her. 

Toni’s grin grows bigger when she sees that the hundred year-old virgin (not literally, but kind of literally) decided to go along with it. She rips open her blouse to add to the effect, and she sets her hands on the Captain’s chest.

“Steve.” She said breathlessly.

She had a beautiful body, but he decided not to voice that thought (might end in another tear-fest).

Meanwhile, on the other end of the microphone, the rest of the Avengers (and Loki, for some reason) had assembled in the living room. None of them were necessarily surprised, they just didn’t enjoy listening to their friends have sex as much as they thought they would. 

Steve wrapped his arms around Toni's slim waist and kissed the tender skin of her neck and throat, and she felt like this was a repeat of the elevator last time they went undercover. Except this time there was nobody around to interrupt them. She’s not sure if she’s happy about that or not.

“Toni.” He whispered against her skin, and she shivers. Goddamn it, how could a man be so innocent and a turn on at the same time?

His lips find their way to her ear, and the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight. He blows a light gust of wind into her ear, and she can feel her core heat up.

“I think it’s gone on long enough.” He whispers and pulls away, effectively ending the moment. Steve leaves Toni, the supposedly more experienced one out of the two, baffled and flustered in the middle of the room. After a few seconds of staring into space with her mouth hanging open, she regains her composure and buttons her shirt up again.

The group upstairs in the living room had heard enough already and had Loki retract his magic, so Steve and Toni had no problem opening the door. They filed into the elevator, and pressed the number of the floor of the living room.

“Hey, Cappy, wasn’t that super fun? Aren’t you glad that you decided to play along?” Toni immediately piped up, hoping that Steve wouldn’t reprimand her for her little shenanigans. 

“Hm, it was weirdly enjoyable.” 

And Toni swears that she saw the Captain throw her a wink, but she can’t be sure.

“Did you just wink at me?”

“I don’t know, did I?”

“You’re a lot more fun when we’re making out.” She muses, causing the tips of his ears to turn pink. Ha, amateur. 

“Well then, maybe we should do that more often.” She hears him say, and she gapes. His eyes twinkle with amusement.

The elevator finally comes to a stop and they walk out with the rest of the team staring at them with wide eyes.

“Why’d you guys seal us in that room?” Steve demanded seemingly sternly, but Toni could see him trying to fight a small smile.

“We didn’t. Loki just misplaced his magic, and none of us could get in, but we contacted him and voila.” Natasha was a great liar.

“Right, right,” Toni trailed off, “So, guys, have you heard anything interesting recently?” She had a wide smile, and Steve knew what she was doing. 

Clint could tell from that look in their eyes that they knew. They knew.

“Oh, nothing much, nothing much.” Clint laughed awkwardly.

“Nothing much? I’m fairly certain we just heard Captain of America and Lady of Iron having–” Natasha stuffed her fist in Thor’s mouth before he could continue to speak.

Steve’s grin widened as he watched Thor look at Natasha with a puzzled expression.

“What was that?” He inquired.

“Um, it seems that they will kill me if I say anything, so I will not reveal any more information to you. Although I do not understand why. Is there something shameful about mating here on Earth? In Asgard, we take great pride in–”

“What Thor means to say is, nothing at all.” Natasha slams his head onto the table, and finishes his sentence for him. 

“Right, right.”

“So who’s up for a movie? How ‘bout ‘The Wolf on Wall Street’? It’s like a mild porno, and Virgin #1 and 2 here,” Toni smirked, gesturing to Steve and Bruce, “Could use a little education? Don’t you think?” She surveyed the room with bright eyes.

“I do not object, but surely Captain of America does not lack sexual experience. I mean, we just perceived the sounds of– oomph!” Thor again, with his big mouth. Natasha kicks him in the crotch without batting a lash.

“Sure thing.” She smiles.


	5. Chapter 5

Toni and the Captain don’t see each other much after that, since Steve had moved out of the tower already. 

“Stark, I’ve already notified the others, the team has a mission. Make sure to wear something nice, we’re going to a ball.” Fury had contacted her about a mission out of the blue.

“Oh, come on, Nicky, haven’t I done enough for you already? I saved the world– twice!”  
“Please, you technically caused it the second time. Now shut your mouth, Rogers will be picking you up at 6 p.m tomorrow. Be ready.” He had snorted. 

“What? Cappy? Why?” Toni’s eyes widened. She didn’t really want to see him. 

“Well, you two have the most chemistry. We want to show the cameras something interesting. Just imagine the headlines: Captain America and Toni Stark smooching booties?”

“Chemistry? You outta your mind, Nicky? Toni Stark sleeps around and you know it. And smooching booties? I didn’t you had it in you, Fury. ”

“I don’t think that’s something you should say so proudly. And perhaps that wasn’t the most delicate way to put it. Oh, I almost forgot, but bring your Iron Woman suit. Anyways, I expect you to be on your best behavior, I’ve already went over the details with Rogers. See you tomorrow.” A click sounded, signifying the end of the conversation. 

What was it with her and Steve Rogers and pretending to be a couple? 

Instead of over the top and bedazzling like the usual Toni, she opts for simple grace and elegance. A black velvety floor-length strapless gown that flares at the bottom and has a slit on the side and that accented her curves perfectly and simple black stilettos make up her outfit. She lays out the dress as a reminder for her mission tomorrow. 6 p.m, important mission, don’t pull any shit though she loves to get on Fury’s nerves…and Steve. Right. Him. Her fake boyfriend. 

She spends the next day down in the lab, repairing her suits from the last battle and chatting with Jarvis. It’s kind of sad, but Pepper and basically just everyone else was busy. 

The time for the mission rolls by, and Toni wants to look flawless. She usually doesn’t put too much thought into her appearance, because she was just naturally hot like that, but at 5 o’clock on the dot, she clambers up to her bathroom. She pulls the sides of her hair into braids and puts them up in an elegant style, the light brown and blond strands twisted together to form a shining mixture. She puts on minimal eyeliner and striking red lipstick to top it off. She adjusts the earpiece that they’d all agreed to wear on all missions and hides it in her hair so that it’s barely visible. Jarvis informs her that Steve had arrived, and she looks at herself one last time in the mirror and allows herself a smug and satisfied smile. 

“Stark?” She hears his familiar but not really familiar and tentative voice echo through the floor.

“Right here.” She walks out the bathroom and doesn’t miss the way his pupils dilate when he takes her in. His eyes roam her body, and he offers her an arm and a soft smile that makes her miss him.

“You look b–nice.” He corrects himself just in time. 

“Thanks.” She smiles back at him, and he looks absolutely delicious in a tux, and she loops her arm through his outstretched one. To his credit, Fury had at least ordered them a limo. Steve opens the door for her, and she smiles at his gentlemanliness. 

“Thank you.” She lifts her dress a bit so she won’t trip, and hears him shuffle in behind her. To her disappointment (kind of), he keeps a respectable distance as they make small talk, mostly about whatever projects Toni has been working on lately. 

At one point, she reaches over to fix his slightly askew bow tie, and the car lurches to a sudden stop, throwing her forward. He manages to catch her in time, and she’s practically sitting in his lap. Her hands are delicately set on his chest, his hands remain on her waist from catching her, and they’re both breathing heavily.

Toni, never one to be shy, leans forward a bit so that their bodies are pressed together. She spreads and shifts her legs so that she’s straddling him, and Steve’s blushing a little. 

“Toni.” He breathes out her name, and she can’t help but feel a sense of deja vu at the day in the kitchen. Their lips are so close…so close…just another few inches… 

They’re interrupted when the car door flies open and they hear the flashes of cameras outside, and Toni begrudgingly gets off Steve’s lap. She was so close…. 

Fortunately, the cameras can’t catch what’s going on inside the car, and Steve steps outside and offers his arm to her. She takes it, missing the previous lack of distance between them. They smile for the cameras, but when they reach the end of the red carpet and pause to pose for a few more photographs, Fury’s instructions stop Steve dead in his tracks.

“Dip Stark and kiss her.”

Toni looks at the Captain with an amused expression.

“You heard old Nicky, kiss me.” She murmured to him with a glint of challenge in her eyes. So Steve goes with the heat of the moment. Toni lets out a small yelp of surprise as she feels herself falling for half a second and feels something soft and warm on her lips. It’s not a passionate kiss, being tight-lipped and merely for the cameras, but Toni feels as if her face is on fire.

Captain America just kissed her. She’s still in a daze as the crowd around them goes crazy. 

“Are you guys dating?”

“How long have you guys been dating?” She loves how this guy just jumps to conclusions. 

“Are you, Captain America, really smooching booties with Toni Stark, Iron Woman?” This guy might as well have been Nick fucking Fury.

She snaps out of her daydream when Steve guides her into the ballroom with his hand on the small of her back. 

“Ah, Toni Stark! Long time no see,” Toni sees a man walk her way, “You look beautiful as always.”

Steve feels Toni tense beneath him. He was sure that there was no lack of men calling her beautiful, so how had he not noticed this until now?

“Oh, I don’t look that nice. You look great though.” She leans forward and kisses his cheek. 

“Hi, Steve R–” The Captain holds out his hand, but the man beats him to it.

“Steve Rogers! Captain America! I’ve always wanted to meet you!” The man finished for him, and reached out to shake his hand with way too much enthusiasm.

“This is David Skymir, the CFO of Stark Industries,” Toni introduced with a grin, “He’s a very important and competent man.”

“Ah, thank you, Miss Stark. You look beautiful as always, and I’m off to talk to some other people.” David left their presence with another kiss to Toni’s cheek, and when he said…the b-word, she had went rigid again.

“Why do you hate the word ‘beautiful’ so much?” He couldn’t help whispering.

“I don’t hate that word, I just don’t like it when people call me beautiful. Because it’s not true. And I don’t like liars.” She whispers back, and doesn’t meet his eyes.

He’s about to reply, but Fury’s voice beats him to it.

“Stark, Rogers, look across the room. The bald guy in the insensible suit there, Manuel Phillips, CEO of Plasma & Co., probably the biggest unauthorized intergalactic arms dealer there is. He’s our target, I need you guys to keep an eye on him during the ball and notify the team when he moves out of the public eye. We’re scattered all across the building. Just waiting for your word.”

“Copy that.” Steve whispered back, and kept his eyes trained on Phillips. 

A song starts to play, and Toni lets go of Steve’s arm. She turns around and reaches out her hand in an inviting manner.

“Come join me for a dance, Captain?” 

Her smile and the way the lights behind her are shining make her look like a goddess, and for a brief second, he’s rendered speechless by her beauty and how glamorous she is. 

“Of course.” He smiles at her. He couldn’t think about Toni Stark like that. She was Toni Stark!

But that was exactly the point. She was Toni Stark. Headstrong, beautiful though she wouldn’t admit it, genius, hardworking, comforting, playgirl, and secure, despite all that. 

Steve puts his warm large hands on her waist, and she puts her delicate ones on his shoulders, and they sway gently in silence. He looks down at her, his bright and shining teal eyes boring into her brown ones. She never thought of her eyes as very pretty, but his are exactly the opposite. 

Captain America, frustrating, righteous, determined, and infuriatingly hot. His dirty blonde hair is slicked back neatly with a comb, and his features form a gentle smile when he looks at her. 

He catches a glimpse of the arc reactor mostly hidden underneath her dress, and it’s such a small thing, but his face falls. It makes him realize that they don’t belong to the same world. Hers was filled with booze, drunken one-night-stands, the millions little gadgets he saw her meddling with always but never understood the purpose of, and the enjoyment of bright city lights.

Him, on the other hand, he’d rather sit at home and relax with a cup of tea, reading a good book, and avoided media attention at all costs. They were just two inherently different people. 

Toni sees the way the Captain’s expression suddenly dims, and she wonders why. Was he thinking about his old teammates again? Was it Bucky? Or…Peggy? She dared herself to think, and her heart aches at the thought of Steve still being in love with Peggy, but she ignores the feeling the best she can. 

As they continue dancing, Steve appreciates Toni’s dress. It’s soft under his hands, the not-too-low neckline managed to be seductive but not slutty, and the slit on the side provided a great view of her long legs. It was a nice dress. 

It’d look nicer if it were on your bedroom floor. 

Wait, wait, wait. Did he just think about fucking Toni Stark? Not good. Not good at all. 

“Cappy, what’re you doing? The song’s over.” She laughs at him good-naturedly, and he flushes and quickly removes his hands from her waist. His eyes immediately snap to Phillip’s location, and the dealer pull out his cell phone before surveying the room, and he walks quickly towards one of the exits. 

“Phillips moving in direction of Conference Room 4, do you copy?”

“Yes, we copy. Weapons ready.” Natasha’s voice comes from the microphone. 

Steve and Toni stay where they are, feigning small talk as they wait for updates on the mission. After a few minutes, a voice finally crackles.

“Target acquired, repeat, target acquired.”

Toni stretches a bit (very unladylike) and blows a stray strand of hair out of her face.

“That was disappointingly easy. Why would Fury have the whole team assemble and have me bring my suit just for this?”

“I think he’s getting old.” Steve says in reply, and Toni snaps her head around to look at him in disbelief. The teacher’s pet badmouthing the teacher? 

“I heard that, Rogers.” Comes Fury’s grunt from the microphone.

“I know.” Is what he says back. Is this the same Steve that she knows? Like, the really annoyingly righteous one that didn’t question anything Fury did?

“Ah, Capsicle, have you taken after my ways?” Toni looks at him proudly with her hands on her hips and eyes shining like she’d created a masterpiece. But before he can reply, a wall is blasted open and smoke is flying everywhere.

“By the way, that’s why I had the whole team here.” Fury said as Toni and Steve watch a bunch of HYDRA soldiers come in through the large hole in the wall.

Toni holds out her hand and waits for her suit to come to her, when the Captain pulls out his American print shield out of thin air. They fight alongside their teammates, but the men just keep coming and coming. Toni’s surrounded, but she’s not worried.

“Good night, boys.” She sings as she wipes out the pack, but a blow to the back of her head sends her sprawling on the floor. Shit. She forgot to check behind her. How had she managed to make such an amateur mistake?

She rolls over and tries to retaliate, but whatever had just attacked her jumps on top of her and tears up her beloved suit. Her arms won’t move. Everything is slow. So slow.

Jarvis is blaring alarms everywhere. 

She hears some distant voices calling her name. So slow.

She fades into blackness. 

…

Toni wakes up to the robotic beeping of a machine, and the room is dull and gray and boring. She remembers and is ashamed of her rookie mistake, and suddenly sees a flash of red. It’s Natasha.

“You’re up,” She looks at Toni in the eyes, “You should’ve seen how worried Rogers was.” She gestures to the sleeping man in the chair next to her.  
“He carried you here, you know,” She continued, “It was, what, 20 miles? 30? I don’t know, but he cares about you. I don’t know how you feel. Think about it.” And Natasha gets up and exits, giving Toni a chance to study Steve in his sleep.

His hair is messed up now, and his tux is torn, but he still looks wonderfully handsome. His sleeping face is so clear and pure, without the usual mixture of seriousness and pain and sadness. 

He stirs, and slowly his eyelids open to reveal the eyes that she deemed so beautiful. 

“You’re up.” Steve startles at the sound of Toni’s voice, and is even more confused when she’s smiling at him, a simple, genuine smile. No smirk.

“Yep,” He stretches, “You look like shit.”

“I bet I do.” She laughs.

A moment of silence passes over them.

“Thanks for saving me and waiting and carrying me here.” She finally speaks up in a small voice, without it usual confidence and brashness.

“Wait, how do you– Oh, Natasha snitched on me, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.” She snickered.

“It’s no problem.”

“So…I heard you carried me 20 miles?”

“Well, more precisely 27, it was pretty scary, Stark,” He stretches, “You looked so out of it.”

“Yeah, if you were hurt I’d carry you for 27 miles too.”

“Right. Like you can actually lift me.” He snorts. 

“I’d use my suit. Just appreciate the sentiment, Rogers.” She rolls her eyes. 

And as he watches her, pale, sick, wounded, but beautiful all at the same time, he decides one thing. 

He loves her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COMMENT.

Steve hangs around the tower for a while after that, deciding to look after Toni. She really can’t take care of herself sometimes. He gives her water when she asks for it, constantly asking her if she needs anything. She’ll admit it, she kind of loves the attention, but it was weird.

“Uh, Cappy, my injuries have basically all healed, you don’t have to stay around to take care of me.”  
“Yeah…I guess I’m just over-worrying myself. But you’ll be seeing a lot of me from now on. I’ve decided to move into the tower. Regardless of its ugliness, we can talk about that some other time.”

“Really?” Toni’s eyebrows lifted and she ignored the remark about her tower’s appearance. It’s beautiful.  
“Yeah. Some fucking alien burned down my apartment. How the hell does an alien burn down a singular apartment?” It was true.

“Oh, watch your language, Cappy,” Toni shook her head at him, smirking, “Honestly, you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

“Maybe not my mother.” He smirks right back.

“I swear you just winked at me.” Toni is a bit baffled by how straight forward he is. Is this really Steve Rogers? Did an alien steal his skin too?

“What’re you talking about?” He winked at her.

“Seriously? We’re doing this?”

“Doing what?” Wink. 

“Geez, I thought you were more evolved than this.”

He ignored her and hummed to himself, walking off to his room.

Steve Rogers. What a (hot) bitch.

…

“Stark, we need you to go on a stakeout tomorrow night. It’s an important one, please don’t argue,” Fury tells her, “You’ve given me enough migraines to last a lifetime.”

“What? Why? I’ve done so much for you already, Nicky, don’t you think I deserve some alone time?”

“Right, and just let you use this time to drink and go to orgies? No, I don’t think so,” Fury snorted, “Plus, Rogers will be there.” He doesn’t know why he adds the last part. Just a feeling. 

“Why is Rogers everywhere in my life? Jesus.” Toni says in return, but her mind is already thinking of ways to accept the offer because the Captain will be there without losing face.

“Well, would you be willing to go on the mission if we withdrew Rogers?”

“No, no, no, that’s not necessary. I’ll go,” Toni sighs, “I still like New York. Oh, the things I do for you and your secret boy band.”

“Right, thanks for all your cooperation.” Fury’s voice is dripping with sarcasm, but she ignores it, and smiles brightly.

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all! I just love contributing to the team, you know?”

Fury makes a noncommittal sound before telling her to behave again, and he hangs up.

“Goddamn it.”

…

The sun has gone down, and Toni and Steve are sitting in a bare gray room in an empty building. S.H.I.E.L.D had dropped them off earlier, and they got comfortable in the small space.

After a few moments of silence (maybe even just a few seconds), Toni had slumped against the wall and declared, “I’m bored.”

“I know.”

“Let’s play a game! A truth for a truth. I get to ask you a question and you have to answer it truthfully, and vice versa.”

Steve grunts in response, and she takes that as a “yes”.

“Do you like Taylor Swift?” is Toni’s first question.

“Taylor Swift? Who is that again?” He racks his brain, but his mind is still partially stuck in the 40’s.

“You know, the ‘we are never ever ever getting back together’ girl.”

“Oh! Her! I must be 100% truthful?” Steve kind of likes Taylor Swift.

“Yep.”

“Yeah…her music is sentimental and relatively enjoyable.” He doesn’t look particularly bashful, probably because he does not understand the shamefulness of publicly admitting to liking Taylor Swift (although it was everybody’s guilty pleasure, no denying).

“Ok, your turn.” Toni bounces up and down excitedly.

“Do you enjoy the music of, what is it you call him, Justin Bieber? You seem fond of him, but refuse to admit it for some reason.” 

“Yeah…Cap, you don’t seem to understand. Liking Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber is like a crime.”

“What? Why?”  
“They’re not exactly…it’s cool to hate the Biebs.” Toni wants to explain it, but it’ll take too long.

“What’s ‘The Biebs’?” Steve is genuinely confused, and it’s kind of cute. 

“Justin Bieber. Bieber. The Biebs.”

As the evening goes on, there’s no movement from the perp, and the questions start to get a bit more personal. 

Steve tells Toni about his childhood with his friends in Brooklyn before he let a strange man stick needles in him in a basement, and Toni tells him about her neglectful parents with a bitter laugh, and Steve doesn’t say anything, but silently condemns Howard in his head. 

Finally, after laughing until her sides ached at one of Steve’s stories, and hell, she didn’t know that Captain America could be funny, neither of them speak for a minute.

“Why…why do you hate being called beautiful?” Is what escapes from Steve’s lips next.

She gives him a look, and he apologizes. Says that it’s too personal. That he shouldn’t have asked in the first place. But she sighs and runs her hands through her hair.

“I’ll tell you.” Isn’t it about time she told someone?

“What?” He stops his incoherent apology and stopped to look at her.

“I’ll tell you,” She turns to look into his eyes, “In return, you’ll tell me why you get that look sometimes.”

“Look? What’re you talking about?” He knows exactly what she’s talking about.

“Oh, you can’t think that I haven’t noticed. Sometimes you just get this look on your face…I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s desperate, and hopeless, and I would’ve made fun of it if you didn’t look so ridiculously miserable sometimes.” 

Steve sighed. Guess there’s no reason to keep that to himself anymore. “Deal,” He gives in, “I’ll go first.”

Toni looks at him expectedly, and he takes a deep breath.

“I don’t really want to be saying this, because the reason is just so absolutely stupid, but I get nostalgic sometimes. This world that I’ve been thrown into, with all this stuff that I don’t understand, and I’m so obsolete. I feel so stupid sometimes when you talk that science gibberish with Banner and it’s so fucking stupid and I wish I didn’t feel this way, but I do. I miss Bucky, and Peggy, hell, I even miss Howard. I miss the times that I lived in, the one with the classical music and when people actually had manners and just everything that’s opposite of this world. I hate this feeling, but my brain’s not evolved enough to catch up with your science and technology shit. The world is just an entire new place, everybody I’ve known is dead, everything that I’ve loved is over, everything I’ve been exposed to is gone. Gone. Just like that,” He says with a bitter laugh, almost all in one breath, “Anyways, as I said, this look that you talk about, it’s just bullshit. You can– you can ignore it. So fucking stupid.” He shakes his head to himself.

She stays quiet for a moment, “It’s not stupid.”

“It is. Even I admit it. You can make fun of me now.”

“Cappy, as much as I love how you just admitted that you are absolutely stupid–” He cracks a smile at this, “It’s not unusual. I know how it feels to not fit in.” She tells him with a wistful smile.

“Not fit in…” He says to himself, and seems deep in thought.

Toni doesn’t say more, and looks at Steve. His brows knit together in deep thought, clear blue eyes so innocent despite the things he’s seen, the things he’s been through. She can’t help but think that this man is beautiful.

“Well…your turn.” He smiles at her gently. 

He lets Toni take her time, because it can’t be a easy thing to say. 

“I–” Her voice breaks a little, and she clears her throat before shaking her head and continuing, “I’ve never been the same ever since I came back from Afghanistan.”

He stays silent, and she looks away.

“Things happened there. Things. They obviously wanted me so that I could build something for them, and I’m fine with it. I’m fine with that. But there were other things that they did while I wasn’t working.” She stops again for a minute, and he catches the gist of it, and a look of horror almost makes it onto his face, but he keeps his face clear of emotion.   
“They–there's no point in sugar-coating it. They molested me and though they never actually raped me, they threatened me with it everyday, right after waterboarding. And the idea of...I'm not going to go into detail about what they said, but they told me that I'm dirty, and that I'm a whore, and I'm worthless. And I am. I’m pathetic. I have no friends, all my teammates hate me, and I’m absolutely revolting.” Her voice trembles.

“I still have nightmares about it. And I’ll never be clean. I’m tainted and I’m broken. And I’m certainly not beautiful.” 

He’s looking at her worriedly, and thank God because there’s no pity and she really didn’t need pity right now, and she doesn’t realize she’s started crying until his calloused fingers wipe away stray tears on her face, and she freezes.

“Toni,” He says her first name, not “Stark” or some other snarky nickname, but Toni. “They’re wrong.”

“No they’re not.” She squeezes her eyes shut.

“You really think they know what they’re talking about? They clearly haven’t seen the real you, because the real you is wonderful. You challenge everyone around you in the best way, and you’re kind and never ignorant, though at times insensitive,” Steve moves his hand away, and smiles and leans back, “And don’t forget, billionaire, genius, playgirl, philanthropist.”

She smiles at that, but he can still see the pain in her eyes, and how she truly believes what the men back in Afghanistan had said.

“I’m not gonna tell you what to do, and I don’t mean to overstep, but clearly you’ve never had anyone truly care for you,” She’s kind of startled by what he’s saying but stays quiet because she wants to hear the rest of it. “When someone as amazing as you is so unsure of herself behind that egotistical bullshit, there’s gotta be a story to it. Howard was a great friend of mine, but I’ll admit that he wasn’t the best person I knew, and I can tell that he obviously never cared for you like you wanted him to. But you’re wonderful and I don’t know how you don’t see it. You may put up that act like you’re happy and content, but I can see past it. You act like that on the outside, but you’re not a fake person. It’s just…ok, this is gonna come out sounding corny as fuck, but you’re the realest thing in my life right now.” He doesn’t look at her, but instead leans against the wall and closes his eyes.

Tears blur her vision again at his words, and she hates herself for it. Why is she so weak? She’d become immune to words through the insults her father had thrown her way, but why did Steve’s words make her want to curl up in a ball and bawl her eyes out? 

Maybe it was the way he said it.

God, she’s such a girl.

She doesn’t fully believe him yet, but she’s getting there. At least there was someone in the world that didn’t think of her as totally useless.

“Thank you.”

That’s all she says, but it’s enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMMENT. SERIOUSLY.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all the support and comments, just because I asked haha.

“California girls we’re undeniable dun dun dun…” Steve finds Toni singing along to an outdated Katy Perry song when he walks into the kitchen. She’s mixing something in a bowl. 

She senses his presence and looks up and smiles at him cheekily.

“That’s actually the only line I know.” She informs him, and he snorts in response. 

“You baking something?” He asks as he presses shuffle on the iPod, and soon enough, after skipping probably twenty songs, Taylor Swift blasts through the speakers. 

“Yep, brownies. Chocolate cravings.” 

“We are never getting back together, like, ever.” Taylor Swift’s sass is audible everywhere, and Toni sings along despite herself.

As the song hit its climax, she raises the spatula, miming a microphone.

“Yeahhh! We, are never ever ever, getting back together,” She squeezes her eyes shut and belts out as dramatically as she can, “Weee are never ever ever, getting back together!” She can feel bits of brownie batter dripping on her cheeks, but Tay Tay’s determination to not hook up with her ex is all that’s on her mind right now.

She turns to Steve at the next part, “You go talk to your friends,” She points to him, “Talk to my friends talk to me,” She points to herself, “But weee are never ever ever, getting back together!”

He starts laughing and he can’t stop. He doesn’t know if it’s the expression she has when she points to him or just the idea of Toni Stark singing along to Taylor Swift while baking brownies.

And she laughs too. 

Bruce walks into the room, and upon finding Toni Stark with brownie batter on her face doubled over with Steve Rogers while Taylor Swift played in the background, he slowly slinked away. No thank you.

“You have like, so much food on your face right now.” Steve studies her face and it’s caked in batter. Ha ha. See what he did there? Anyways, she still looks gorgeous, and he doesn’t know how she does it. Hair messy, cheeks flushed, brown eyes boring into his. 

He holds out a tissue, but she looks at him with a grin, and he doesn’t think he’ll like what comes next.

“Aw, Captain, why don’t you clean it with your mouth? I think it’d be much more enjoyable for both of us that way.”

The tips of his ears turn pink at the suggestive comment/request/whatever, and he cocks an eyebrow.

“Really? You’d be okay with that?” 

“Really. It’s not everyday you have the opportunity for Captain America in all his glory and hotness to literally, suck faces with you.”

And against his better judgment, he walks to her, his large figure towering over hers. Toni gulps, she had made a joke, and he was taking it quite seriously. She thought her offhanded innuendos to be brushed off as they usually did, but never did she think that Captain America, out of all people, would retaliate. 

It’s all cool, though. No harm can be done from a hot guy licking your face. At least she thinks. 

And Steve bends down and his tongue sweeps across her cheek. She shivers. His mouth is dangerously close to hers, and he can feel her breath on his face. They’re both kind of turned on. Shit.

Clint walks in in the middle of their “make out session” but they don’t notice, and he pours himself a cup of coffee before standing just a meter away from Captain America licking Iron Woman’s face with an amused smile.  
“Clint!” Steve notices him first, and jumps back. More like sprints to the other side of the room.

“Hey, guys. I think I’m interrupting something.”

“No no no no no no you didn’t. You didn’t.” Toni repeats, more to herself than to Clint. 

“Wait, but I’m pretty sure Stevie here was just eagerly licking your face–”

“Ha, ha, Clint. Has your vision really deteriorated that much? See how I’m on the complete opposite side of the room?” Steve laughs as awkwardly as possible.

“Geez, do you guys think I was born yesterday?” Clint rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his coffee, “I’m a spy and assassin, for Christ’s sake. It’s ok if you two or smooching booties, I’ve seen worse things, and honestly, I expected this, so…” He shrugged nonchalantly.

“Ahem, first of all, how come everybody says ‘smooching booties’? That’s like the most unsexy way of saying ‘have sex’,” Toni starts with her hands on her hips, “Second of all, old Cappy here was just helping me with…proper sanitation?”

“I love how that was phrased as a question, Toni.” Clint said with a shit-eating grin, and she resists the urge to punch his face. He’d probably break her arm, though. 

Neither of them replied, and Clint decided that the beyond uncomfortable expressions they both wore was enough for him right now.

“Well, I’ll leave you two to keep dry humping. Ta-ta!” He exits with a wave.

“Jarvis, you recorded all of that right?” He asks as soon as he’s out of the room.

“Of course, Mr.Barton. Can’t miss out on such a great opportunity.” And Clint swears that he can hear Jarvis holding back a snicker. 

 

…

Things are beyond awkward the next morning.

Steve doesn’t look at Toni and Toni doesn’t look at Steve, and their usually banter is replaced by the repetitive sound of forks and knives hitting plates. 

The Captain’s eyes stay glued on the newspaper and he lifts a cup of coffee to his mouth.

“I do not understand,” Thor starts to say, “The absence of the screaming of Lady of Iron and Captain of America is strange. Has something happened that I have no knowledge of?”

“Nothing happened, Thor. Eat your breakfast.” Steve says with a surprisingly convincing poker face without taking his eyes off the paper. 

“So, funny story, guys,” Clint starts speaking as soon as he walks into the room, “Yesterday afternoon I went into the kitchen to get some coffee since I just got back from this mission, and you would not believe what I saw there. The Captain and Toni were literally–”

“Baking brownies together.” Toni cut him off and smiled at him threateningly.

“No no no, they were actually–” 

“Barton, why don’t you shut up?” Steve lifts his eyes from the paper.

“Oh no, Clint, keep talking. I am eager to hear what Captain and America and Lady of Iron were doing yesterday.”

“Yeah, you know, Steve was bent over and he–”

“Hey, Barton, I’ll stop you right there. Eat your breakfast, and shut the fuck up.” Even Clint knew when to stop when he saw the dangerous and threatening glint in Steve’s eyes.

“Ok, Captain. But watch your language, geez.” He holds up his hands in defeat.

“Wait, but I remain curious as to what had happened yesterday.” Thor just keeps on making everything worse. 

“Nothing happened yesterday! K?” Toni turns to Thor and gives him a big ol’ smile.

“But Clint just clearly indicated that something was going on in the kitchen. Am I wrong?” They just can’t seem to get mad at Thor because of how genuine his confusion is. 

“Just–drop it, ok?” Steve uses his Captain America voice, and Thor still looks confused as hell, but he doesn’t bring it up again.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not very happy with this chapter, but whatever. Please comment, and can you guys give me some ideas on what to write about next? I'm having writer's block.

It’s an unspoken agreement between the Avengers that during New Year’s, they would hang out to see the ball drop and watch movies, play poker, and drink.

Thor would usually bring Jane, who would bring Darcy. Sam, Rhodey, and Pepper would always make an appearance as well, but Pepper would usually disappear in the middle, citing “CEO duties”.

This day was today, and everybody was gathered around the table playing poker.

“Ha, Barton, you suck!” Slightly tipsy Toni had pointed at Clint and laughed after he lost yet another hand to Natasha.

“That’s only because Nat cheats and uses her super spy powers,” Clint growls back, “And at least I’m better than you.”

“Oh yeah? Wanna bet?” Toni sneers back.

“Fuck yeah,” Clint takes a swig of beer, and Steve has a bad feeling about this, “If you lose, you have to give Captain here a lap dance in front of the whole team.” And he howls with laughter at his own ingeniousness. He was really drunk.

“Any music preferences?” Toni challenged him back with a cock of an eyebrow.

“Ummm, I Knew You Were Trouble. T-Swizzle is my jam.”

Steve holds back a blush, “Um, is there any way that I can be left out of this?”

“Sorry, no can do. It’d really do something to ease the sexual tension between you and Stark anyways, which is going to happen because I’M WAY BETTER AT POKER THAN HER!”

Toni seems outraged by the second half of the statement, and basically ignores the sexual tension comment.

“YOU ARE NOT. If you lose, you have to call me Your Most Supreme Majesty, wear a pink frilly apron, and bring me my booze when I need it for a week!”

“It’s on.” Clint didn’t even pause to think about the consequences, with a confident glint in his eyes.

Thirty minutes later, they’re sitting across from each other, each with their last hand. Toni looks down at her pair of kings; that’s got to be the winning cards, right?

All her hopes and dreams are crushed by Clint as he throws down his hand.

“Full house!” He belts out with his hands held high above his head in triumph.

“Motherfucker!”

“Ha! Stark! Don’t be a sore loser, you don’t have to feel bad about yourself,” Clint turns to Toni and smirks at her while mockingly cooing, “After all, not many people are better than the one and only Clint Barton.”

“This can’t be possible,” Toni mutters to herself, “He must’ve cheated somehow. This is Clint we’re talking about.”

“Hey.” Clint looks offended, but she just waves him off.  
“Sir, I can confirm that Mr.Barton did not cheat. I can pull up the footage if it is required.” Jarvis chimes in, and yes, Toni has him call her Sir because Ma’am makes her sound like a stuck up bitch. 

“It’s fine.” She waves him off, looking dejected.

The next 10 minutes consisted of Clint boasting and Toni muttering profanities in return.

“Right,” Clint suddenly brightened, “So, lap dance, anybody?” And made a whoop-whoop gesture with his hands obnoxiously.

“Fuck.” Toni says as if she’s just remembered the bet, and she downs a shot of tequila. Steve just sits there, and he’s not sure how he feels.

“Do I have to show my bra? If I do, I should probably go change.” Toni’s words are only a tiny bit slurred and she doesn’t seem all that drunk, and it’s really a miracle considering the amount of alcohol she’d consumed already. 

“I mean, you can if you want to,” Clint shrugs at her, then turns to belt to the rest of the team who’d been doing other things, “Gather round, kids! Toni’s gonna show us her inner-stripper.”

“Ugh, Barton, you know this is a bad idea, right? He blushes at like literally everything remotely sexual, and you think he’ll survive a lap dance?” Toni suddenly snorts at Clint when she catches sight of Steve’s perplexed expression.

“Excuses.”

She rolls her eyes at him, before putting her hands on her hips and suddenly looking very bold and declaring that “I’ll do it! Jarvis, cue up Tay Tay right this moment!”

“As you wish, Sir.”

“Um, Clint, that was all a bad joke, right? She doesn’t have to do this. Seriously. Stop looking at me like that.” Steve laughs nervously as he tries to talk his way out of this. It’s not that he didn’t want to have Toni’s body so close to his, but that was precisely the problem. He couldn’t make any promises what would happen if they were in such a close proximity. 

“Ha, Cappy, don’t be embarrassed,” Toni says with a bark of laughter and she has that look in her eyes and Steve knows there’s no way out of this, “It’s just a platonic lap dance. Those exist, right? Platonic lap dances? You guys don’t have to be such perverts, you know. That’s what it is. A friendship ensuring lap dance!” She declares and he doesn’t think it makes sense, and everybody just looks at her amusedly.

Clint rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, “Whatever, Stark. Just, lap dance, come on, go go go.” And he starts snapping his fingers and Steve doesn’t know what it is about this gesture that makes him want to smack Clint in the face. And Steve usually isn’t a very violent person, if you don’t count the whole throwing-his-shield-at-aliens’-faces thing.

“Once upon a time, a few mistakes ago–” Taylor Swift starts to play throughout the room, and Toni turns to Steve and she has a mischievous smile. Steve doesn’t think this will end well. She stalks towards him and pushes him down into a chair. He would fight back, but he’s stuck in a trance. He feels light and a bit dizzy as he watches Toni straddle him, and feel her body against his. 

She’s not as teasing or sultry as he thought she would be, and he’s not sure if he’s happy about that or not. Toni laughs the realest laugh he’s heard in a while when Natasha wolf-whistles, and Bruce is busy explaining what exactly a lap dance is to Thor. 

She puts her hands on his shoulders and her breasts are right in his face and despite himself, Steve finds his hands settled on her waist. 

Toni’s not exactly trying to seduce him, she would be if she were more sober, but at the moment, they’re all just having a good time. There’s hardly anything too sexual about it, it was just how close together they were that made Steve a bit uncomfortable. 

He lets it slide. 

…

“Um, Toni, I have a question.” Steve says to Toni when she walks into the kitchen one day, and he’s staring at the tablet she’d given everyone on the team a while ago, and he looks very confused.

“Yeah, what’s up? Did something on the Internet offend your fragile ninety-year-old-man sensibilities again?” Toni picks up an apple and begins to munch.

“What’s ‘Stony Fan fiction’?” Steve inquires, and Toni nearly spits out the bits of fruit in her mouth. She does, however, choke a bit, and she breaks into a coughing fit. 

“Steve,” She starts to say and she wonders when they’d gotten to a first name basis, “What exactly are you looking at on your tablet these days?”

“I’m not sure, actually,” Steve starts a bit sheepishly, “Somebody tagged me on this link on Facebook, and I clicked on it. So…what is it?”

“Ha, I don’t think you should read that–” Toni starts to awkwardly laugh but she can already see Steve’s fingers scrolling down and his brain interprets the words on the screen. 

“Wait, is this–” He starts to say, before stopping abruptly and scratching his head.

“Do people think that we have sex with each other in our free time?” He finally manages to say without blushing.

“Well, that’s one way to put it,” Toni didn’t expect him to phrase it that bluntly, “You know people in the twenty first century; no sense of privacy and whatnot.” She waves her hand dismissively.

“Oh, God, this is absolutely horrible.” Toni turns again and finds Steve looking at his tablet with a putrified expression, and she peeks over his shoulder.

Of course, he had moved on to looking at fan art, which was just so much worse than fan fiction. Fan art left absolutely nothing to the imagination, and this one showed a naked Toni hiding behind Captain America’s shield, looking at the ‘camera’ seductively.

“At least they made me hot.” Toni comments.

“Right…” Steve shakes his head a bit, “Twenty first century people have problems.”

“Ha, that I agree with.” Toni says to him cheekily.

And that was that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyy will you guys give me some prompts for what future chapters should contain?
> 
> And comment.
> 
> Thanks!

Steve is a good-looking guy. Toni knows that.

A lot of people think that Steve is a good-looking guy. Toni knows that as well. 

She just wasn’t aware of the exact number of people to find her Steve attractive.

Her Steve? Where had that come from?

Anyways, she’s doing the best she can right now to refrain from going up to Steve right now, who was surrounded by plenty of pretty girls, and pinning him against the wall and kissing him senseless to show those bitches that Steve is hers.

Even though he’s really not. 

The Avengers had been mandated to attend this gala and Toni had gracefully accepted because this was no new scene for her, until those girls had started crowding around Steve and touching his arm and laughing at his jokes (they weren’t even that good).

Toni can only do so much as she glares daggers into the back of this one blonde girl’s head, and her dress is hugging her curves and she seems like she’s really hot from the back…but one can always hope that the bitch flirting with the guy you have a crush on has buck teeth or a cleft palate.

Yeah, Toni’s got past the point where she still denied the crush.

When the blonde girl turns a bit to giggle at another joke, Toni can see her face and of course she’s fucking gorgeous. 

Toni’s considering walking over there and giving that girl a piece of her mind when Steve looks up and catches her eye and winks at her, and she can only look away quickly, very aware of the pink now tinting her cheeks. 

When she dares to look back again, blonde girl is talking to Steve but his eyes are waiting for hers to meet them and he gives her a knowing grin that makes her heart skip a beat. 

“Are you okay?” Bruce asks her from her right, and Toni sighs.

“Brucie Bear, I think I’m having a relationship problem,” Toni confides to the doctor, “And I never have relationship problems.”

Bruce looks amused as he takes a sip of his drink, “Just go talk to him.” His eyes darted over to Steve.

“Him? Who’s him? I don’t know what you’re talking ab–” Toni starts to say but stops after hearing the fake quality to her voice. “See, I can’t even ignore the problem anymore. I need to do something about it. Quick.”

“Have you ever thought about, you know, talking to him?” Bruce quirks an eyebrow at her and she gives him this I can’t believe you’re so stupid look. 

“I can’t talk to him about it,” Toni says exasperatedly, “This is just a temporary thing. A temporary biological thing. I’m just attracted to him because of the whole abs and biceps thing, you know?” She explains lamely while waving her drink around wildly.

“No, I don’t know,” Bruce sighs at her, “There’s nothing hard about talking.”

“Uh, yeah there is. I’m pretty sure he’ll laugh in my face and then give me a speech about how relationships between teammates can cause problems on the battlefield, although I doubt he’d get into a relationship with me anyways. Oh, and while we’re on the topic, should I hire some male strippers?”

Bruce had stopped listening in the middle but his attention immediately snapped back to Toni at the last part.

“Male strippers?” He chokes a bit, “Did I hear you say male strippers?”

“Yes.” Is the simple answer he receives, and Toni’s eyes snap to where Bruce is suddenly looking at with a strange intensity.

A raging fire starts to burn in her stomach at the sight of the same blonde as before getting on her tiptoes to whisper something in Steve’s ear and was unnecessarily close.

To his credit, he looked slightly uncomfortable and was trying as gently as possible to pry her wandering hands off his biceps. 

He smiles a bit apologetically down at the blonde and says something Toni can’t hear from this far away but the girl doesn’t seem discouraged, and goes as far as to put her newly free hand back onto his chest.

Steve’s eyes suddenly snap up to look at Bruce, who was snickering, and then to Toni next to him. He sends a cheeky grin in her direction and finally manages to get the blonde girl’s hands off his body.

Toni lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and she hears Bruce let out another sigh.

“Just go talk to him about it.” He pats her on the shoulder and walks away.

Toni raises an eyebrow as she watches Steve make his way towards her across the room, finally shaking off (some of) the fangirls.

“Someone’s getting handsy, Rogers.” She drawls as he approaches her and he shoots her an undecipherable grin that’s part smug and part apologetic.

“And someone else is getting jealous.”

She tries hard to control the blush, “I’m not jealous.” She says with the best scowl she can muster.

“I never said it was you.” Steve grins at her.

“Jesus Christ, when did you become such a little shit?” Toni grumbles under her breath as she turns to get another drink from the bar.

Steve grabs a beer as well and as he’s summoned by someone in the distance, he turns around with a such a blinding smile and says to her, “Don’t worry, I only have eyes for one girl.” And he manages to sound like he’s joking and genuine at the same time.

Toni feels something in her stomach drop, and she suddenly feels better.

And she’s come to a revelation.

Holy fucking shit-balls. 

She’s in love with Steve Rogers.

…

Ever since Toni’s great epiphany, she can’t stop thinking about him.

When she’s on business trips and sees something funny, she considers taking a picture and sending it to Steve because that’s the kind of thing he would find funny.

Or when she passes by art shops, she considers buying him some supplies as a grand gesture of love, but she quickly shoots down the idea because ew.  
She can come up with a million reasons why she’s in love with him.

It’s fucking disgusting, but she can’t stop.

She loves the way he runs his hand through his silky blonde hair, she loves the way he laughs and his eyes crinkle when they’re watching 21 Jump Street, she loves the way his shirt sticks way too tightly to his chest than is necessary after a workout, she loves the way he drinks his coffee (he has a sexy mouth), she loves the way his hands move when he’s making chocolate chip pancakes–

Okay, clearly she was getting a bit carried away here.

The point is, Toni has a problem.

So naturally, she has to go to the source.

“Hey, Stevie,” Toni knocks on Steve’s door after arriving at his room (they all lived on the communal floor except Toni, who had her own suite), “Can I come in?”

“Sure,” Steve sounds happy but confused, “What’s up?”

“So I was thinking that we should have some quality bonding time.” Toni says, straight to the point.

“What?”

“You know how Fury’s always telling us to get along better.”

Steve snorts, “Since when did you start listening to Fury?”

“Ahem, excuse you, Rogers, Fury is a very honorable man,” Toni says daintily, “I’ll have you know that I follow his orders more often that not, particularly in this case.”

Steve just smiles at her knowingly and doesn’t comment, and they do, in fact, spend some “quality time” together. 

They laugh and watch old movies, go eat baked ziti at Steve’s favorite Italian restaurant and miraculously dodge the paparazzi, they fall asleep in the middle of Space Jam on the couch.

If anything, Toni is more in love than she was before.

Well, fuck her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kind of running out of things to write about. Need some prompts. Comment please!

“Captain, 8 o’clock!” Toni shouts into the com when she spots a mutated squirrel (yes, they had gotten to the point where the super villains had started bombarding them with mutated squirrels) sneaking up behind Steve. 

He turns just in time and delivers a devastatingly hot punch to the squirrel’s face, and it goes down like a ton of bricks. 

They quickly wrap up the battle and Toni finally lets herself relax a bit and she surveys the area one last time to check for any abnormalities–

“Steve!” She immediately dives forward with her repulsors on full blast and her eyes widen as she sees a building about to collapse right onto the spot that Steve is standing.

…

Toni wakes up to feel a scorching pain on her right shoulder, but she ignores it. She’s had worse.

She groggily sits up to look around her when she notices the Captain sitting a few inches beside her, leaning against a wall.

“Steve?”

“Mmm?” 

“What happened?”

He rubs a hand against his face and sighs a little and she feels a little guilty (she’s not exactly sure what for), “You tried to save me, but then somehow we got stuck under the rubble and can’t get out. Fortunately, there’s a small slit letting oxygen in so we won’t die so soon.”

“Just use your serum strength and like, punch the cement out of the way or something.” Toni says as she makes a strange punching motion with her good arm. 

Steve rolls his eyes at her and says like she’s stupid, “I can’t. There’s about twenty tons of rubble on top of us. It’s a miracle that it hasn’t collapsed on us yet.”

“Call the rest of the team, then. Hulk can do his whole smash routine.” Toni counters without missing a beat.

“The coms are down.” 

“I’ll just use my repulsors–” Toni starts to suggest but then she looks down and realizes that the arms of her suit are very very broken. 

“Well, shit.” She says as she stares at her battered armor and her right arm that is definitely broken.

Her brain has already started to–without her permission–conjure designs and run numbers through her head and create schematics to improve the quality of the suit.

“Hey, J,”

“Yes, Sir?”

“How long until the others can get here to bust us out?”

“My estimate would be about an hour or more, Sir.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Sir, I am not Jesus Christ, I am JARVIS, Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. Jesus Christ is regarded as the savior in the religion called Christianity, founded in–”

“Yeah, yeah. Who made you such a smartass?”

“I would say that would be you, Sir.”

Toni grumbles under her breath, but cracks a small smile nonetheless. 

“Wait, Toni, is your shoulder dislocated?” Steve suddenly asks, concerned and inching towards her.

“Uh.” She replies as Steve approaches her, looking alarmed and staring at her shoulder. It doesn’t look too great, bruised and bent awkwardly. 

“I’ll set it for you.” He says softly and taps on the parts of armor still covering her arm.

“Yeah, it’s fine–” She starts to say, but Jarvis, the traitor, has already opened up that portion of the armor and her strangely-positioned shoulder is exposed. 

Toni’s had worse when it comes to pain, but even as she felt Steve’s hands on her shoulder and she knew what was coming, she couldn’t help topping over in pain.

“Holy glitter-ball shitting unicorns!” She cries out as she tips over in Steve’s direction. 

She’s lying against his chest as he raises an eyebrow at her, “Glitter-ball shitting unicorns?”

“Rainbow shitting unicorns?” She tries again, closing her eyes and relishing the feeling of Steve’s broad chest under her head. He starts to pull away, but Toni grabs onto his shirt and hums a little. 

“Don’t move, Pillow.”

She falls asleep. 

…

“Geez, if I’d known you guys were getting frisky in here, I would’ve stayed home.” Toni’s woken up by the loud and annoying voice of Clint.

“Shut up, Katniss.” She mutters, not lifting her face from the warm mass still underneath her. 

“Make me, Tin Can.” He taunts right back.

“That wasn’t even a good insult.” She grumbles and sits up so that she can rub the bleariness out of her eyes, and then flips Clint the bird. 

Steve stands up with a sigh and dusts himself off a bit, and holds out a hand to help Toni up, but she just sits there and looks at him expectantly. 

“What?” He asks after being stared at for a few seconds.

“You can’t just expect me to get up and walk over there by myself, can you?” Toni says with wide eyes and mock-innocence, “I’m injured!”

“On your arm. I’m pretty sure your arm has nothing to do with walking.” 

“Yeah, no thanks to the walking part,” Toni says and holds up her arms the best she can petulantly, “Carry me.” 

“What?” Steve blinks.

“Carry me.” She repeats, gaze unwavering.

“Hurry up, Cap,” Clint calls from the distance, “The quinjet’s fired up!”

Steve sighs again, probably for the tenth time today, and just looks at Toni, who looks right back. 

“Why the fuck do I let you get away with things like this?” He finally breaks, and moves forward to scoop her up in his arms. 

“Because I’m hot and awesome, and you love me.”

“It’s not like I could help it.” Steve says quietly, not meant to be heard, as he gathered Toni up in his arms.

Her eyes widen and she looks at Steve’s face, but there’s nothing but fond exasperation there. 

No, you must’ve heard wrong, She thinks to herself, there’s no way that someone like Steve would love someone like you. 

She ignores it.

…

Steve narrows his eyes at Toni and Rhodey on the couch, laughing and comfortable.

Sure, he understands that Rhodey had been there for Toni through her worst, but did they have to be so loud and happy and…just ew.

“Could you guys stop giggling like 10 year-old girls, please?” Clint cuts in noisily, throwing a popcorn kernel in their direction as an act of protest. “Some of us are trying to watch the movie here.”

“Come on, Birdbrain, you’re actually telling me that you’re voluntarily paying attention to the Twilight saga? Who put this shit on anyways?” Toni says back instantly.

“I did,” Natasha cuts in, terrifying as ever, and she’s grinning with too much teeth. “I happen to think that Robert Pattinson has a cute butt. Problem?”

“Oh, no no no, no problem at all.” Toni says back immediately, waving her hands in the air aimlessly.

“Didn’t you used to date that guy?” Rhodey says, suddenly.

“Yeah, I forgot to mention, Nat, his butt isn’t as cute in person as it is onscreen.”

Steve groans, “See, none of us really wanted to know that, Toni.”

“Jealous, honey-bear?” Toni waggles her eyebrows at him. He just groans again in return.

The scene where Edwin–Edward? Steve’s not sure, just the really pale guy who used to date Toni, blocks the other really pale girl from a car appears, and the whole team bursts into laughter. It’s unprecedented and there’s really no reason for it, but they can’t seem to stop. Maybe being able to do those things in real life really takes away the impressive edge to movie scenes. 

Rhodey carelessly throws a hand around Toni’s shoulder in the midst of the laughing fit, and she snuggles closer to him as if by reflex. 

It doesn’t go unnoticed by Steve, who watches them with close scrutiny for the rest of the night.

And no, his insides don’t burn and he doesn’t want to punch Rhodey in the face when he lifts Toni from the couch to bring her to the bedroom after she falls asleep.

He doesn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys prompts if you give me a suggestion there's a 90% chance that I'll write it. Comment!


	11. Chapter 11

So I'm doing this thing that I hate when other authors do it....this is an A/N. 

Please know that I haven't abandoned this story, despite not updating it in about four months.......

It's just that, if any of you have been following my page, you'll know that after Civil War came out I got really mad at Cap, and every time I try to write a light-hearted romantic story about Tony and Cap, I just get even angrier. 

I don't know if that makes any sense, but I am so sorry for this disappointment, and hopefully I'll get over my...anger soon.

:)))))


End file.
